She Was the Feel-Good Story of the Summer, But a Sponsorship Deal Eludes Her

At June’s U.S.A. Track & Field Championships, Sara Vaughn stormed from ninth place to third place on the last lap of the women’s 1500-meter final. In so doing, she qualified for the World Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The meet is track’s most prestigious event after the Olympics.

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Vaughn’s performance was notable, because while most of her competitors are full-time athletes, Vaughn, 31, works at least 20–40 hours per week, sometimes far more, as a realtor in Boulder, Colorado. She’s also a mother of three.

Her breakthrough, a triumph for people everywhere trying to fit their running into busy lives, resulted in an outpouring of support from the running community. In London, Vaughn had another strong showing, running a 1500-meter personal best of 4:04.56 and advancing to the semifinals of the event.

Virtually every other runner who made Team USA for worlds this summer had a contract with a shoe company. Vaughn, however, bought most of her own equipment last summer. Three months later, she remains unsponsored.

The hazy world of running shoe contracts

In general, financial possibilities are as good as they’ve ever been for professional middle-distance and distance runners. Agents to runners say that an NCAA champion perceived to have the potential to medal at world championships and Olympic Games can secure a multiyear deal with a shoe company worth six figures per year out of college.

Shoe companies are also investing more money in athletes who are part of training groups than ever before. Groups have coalesced around coaches in areas like Boston; Portland, Oregon; Flagstaff, Arizona; Seattle; and Rochester Hills, Michigan.

But for runners who don’t fit into those categories, getting by can be a challenge. The same can be true for runners who get injured, pregnant, or have poor seasons and face reductions or the non-renewal of their contracts.

Below, Sara Vaughn gives an interview after making the team for the world championships.

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Vaughn, at 31, is 10 years out of college, and her busy life with her family and job makes it impossible for her to train with a team; instead she fits in workouts whenever she can. Her story shows how hard it can be for even top runners to make a living.

Vaughn’s path through the sport has been unconventional from the beginning. She had her first daughter, Ciara, who is now 11, at the start of her junior year at the University of Colorado.

Despite the challenges, Vaughn and her husband, Brent Vaughn, did their best collegiate running after Ciara’s birth in 2006—and they graduated on schedule, in 2008.

Brent, who still holds CU’s 5,000-meter record, signed with Nike and ran professionally for the company for five years. A year after graduating, Sara secured a small one-year contract with Adidas, but that was not renewed the following year when she was pregnant with their second daughter, Caila, who was born in June 2010.

Brent won the 2011 USA Cross Country Championships, but when neither Vaughn qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games, the reality of their financial situation began to set in. Both continued to run at a high level, but Brent began working in construction and now has his own company, while Sara got her real estate license, figuring the flexible schedule might work well with her training.

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In August 2015, the Vaughns had their third daughter, Cassidy, and 11 months later, Sara finished seventh at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Having been in the sport for more than a decade, Vaughn understands the landscape of professional running. At this point in her career, she’s not expecting large deal, and she doesn’t anticipate being able to quit her job. But she would like to make enough to offset the costs of being a professional runner.

“[Having a sponsor] would alleviate a ton of mom guilt,” said Vaughn, whose daughters are now 11, 7, and 2. “I’m taking out of my family fund to travel to races all the time, to buy shoes, to buy spikes, to get massages. It would be nice to have a fund that’s actually dedicated to training and racing expenses.”

Vaughn had been a part of the Brooks ID program for three years, which meant she received gear and some performance bonuses from the company. (Bonus structures vary by company, but they can be for hitting certain times or finishing in the top three at important races, for example.) But the company changed its bonus structure, Vaughn said, so extra money became harder to earn.

Vaughn had spent her allotment in gear by May and opted not to re-enroll in the program, as it would prevent her from securing formal sponsorship with a different company.

Before Brooks changed its bonus structure, Vaughn said the most she ever earned from the company in bonuses was approximately $2,000 in a year.

While Vaughn had the polished look of a Brooks-sponsored athlete at the U.S. championships, she bought her own trainers and spikes at a local running store leading up to the event. Upon returning from London, Vaughn put in extra hours at work to make up for the expense of her track season.

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“[Sponsorship] would take some of the pressure off of that, too, just being able to step back a little more during the track season and focus on running when I need to,” Vaughn said. “This year, May was my busiest month out of the year and I felt really obligated to do that because I can’t afford to not work and focus on track right now.”

She hoped that making the world championships team would lead to a more lucrative deal. She was told via an agent that Brooks, for one, was unable to offer her anything more.

“I wanted really desperately for something to work out with them, and it didn’t go anywhere,” Vaughn said.

Brooks’ Team Brand Manager Steve DeKoker confirmed via email that the company does not currently have a relationship with Vaughn.

“We’ve enjoyed working with her over the past three years. She is a talented athlete that inspires many people to lace up and run,” DeKoker wrote in a statement to Runner’s World. “While we continue to sponsor athletes of all types, the majority of our investment is with our two teams, the Brooks Beasts Track Club and the Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project. We were excited to watch Sara qualify for and run in the World Track and Field Championships, and we wish her success.”

Where the money goes

In conversations with Runner’s World, three agents to professional runners, none of whom works with Vaughn, said that the flow of money from shoe companies to athletes has changed in recent years.

“The biggest trend that I’ve seen in the last decade is a migration of resources that are coming from shoe companies are going more and more into group situations,” said Dan Lilot, a San Francisco-based agent who works with athletes like Dathan Ritzenhein and Ben True. “It has gotten harder for the lone wolf types to do it on their own.”

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This makes sense to many in the field, because a group training situation can mimic the best part of running in college, offering athletes a support structure with coaching and teammates. It also helps the sponsoring companies.

“From the shoe companies’ side, it makes a lot of sense to invest in the team aspect rather than giving a bunch of money to an athlete and then crossing your fingers and saying, ‘Hey, I hope they work it out and win us a medal,’” said Josh Cox, an agent to many top U.S. runners.

Another factor that may be working against Vaughn in the eyes of potential sponsors is her age. At 31, she’s young by most people’s standards, but she was the second-oldest runner (behind Shannon Rowbury) in the 1500-meter final at this year’s U.S. championships.

“Age, unfortunately, does play a role,” said Merhawi Keflezighi, an agent who represents several athletes and most famously helped resurrect his brother Meb Keflezighi’s career after he lost his Nike sponsorship. “A lot of brands, they want to start young with an athlete. Maybe they want to start with them right after college and kind of be there when they achieve something like what Sara has done. It’s not just what you’ve done, it’s what you’re going to do. They have to really believe that the future is bright for an athlete like Sara to make that investment.”

Sara Vaughn runs at the world championships in London, where she set a PR.

NurPhoto/Getty Images

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In Vaughn’s case, timing might be working against her as well. Once every four years, track has a non-championship year, with no Olympic Games or world championships. The 2018 season is one of those years.

“Some shoe companies are cutting back just a little bit and getting themselves positioned for a push toward 2020,” Keflezighi said. “I don’t think that’s written in stone, but definitely, when it’s an off year, a lot of the brands cut back or reassess.”

He also noted that shoe companies find the most value in having their athletes represent them at U.S. Championships, because once they qualify for Team USA, as Vaughn did, they will wear Nike gear when they represent the U.S. in their next big competition, because USA Track & Field is sponsored by Nike.

Vaughn also has the challenge being a U.S. middle distance runner at a time when there has never been more talent.

“We are so deep right now, especially in the women’s middle distance, that it’s harder to stand out,” Lilot said.

He has also noticed that more brands are starting to put sponsorship dollars toward influencers.

“It’s not about just putting your logos on the best athletes; it’s about people who have reach, whether it’s through social media or other means,” Lilot said.

A bright future

The contradiction in Vaughn’s situation is that while her accomplishments in running haven’t followed the usual trajectory, that’s exactly what makes her so appealing to fans.

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“At the end of the day, the athlete’s job, one would say, is to win titles and to win races,” Cox said. “On the other side of the coin, it’s to sell shoes. That’s really the ultimate goal. Sure, performance is a big part of that, but there are a lot of different factors that play into an athlete’s worth.”

No, Vaughn can’t move and join a group, and yes, she’s a little older. But she kept working at her sport and made a world team with three kids and a job, a story that’s appealing to thousands of people, especially mothers.

Maybe things will break the right way for her. “Sometimes there are injustices in our sport, where you feel like there’s no reason this person shouldn’t be sponsored,” Keflezighi said. “If they have realistic expectations, it’s just a matter of the right [company] knowing about the opportunity.”

She lowered her 1500 meter personal best by four seconds in 2017, she’s set at least one personal best every year she has competed for the past 10 years, and she says she plans to pursue her running through at least 2020, and likely a few more years beyond that. Factoring in her breaks for maternity leave, Vaughn’s “training age” dips lower than that of some of her competitors.

Regardless of what comes her way in terms of financial reward, she is not giving up. Said Vaughn: “I'm going to continue to train and race like I have been.”

Clarification: A previous version of this story said that Vaughn bought her own spikes for the world championships. In fact, a shoe company, Nike, donated spikes for Vaughn to wear during the meet.

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